Western Road Trip Highlights Benefits of Islanders Travel Schedule

The Islanders California swing is a once-a-year jaunt, but for Bo Horvat, LA, Anaheim and San Jose are familiar destinations.
These used to be the divisional rivals for Horvat and illustrates one of the biggest differences between Horvat's old team, the Vancouver Canucks and his new team, the New York Islanders, travel.

LA is roughly a three-hour flight from Vancouver, while San Jose is about two. The Islanders could drive to three of their division rivals - the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers - in under two hours, traffic notwithstanding.
Vancouver's travel schedule is notorious around the NHL, something Horvat knows well from his eight-and-a-half years on the west coast. Prior to Seattle joining the league last season, the closest Canucks trips were flights to Edmonton and Calgary, which are about an hour and a half away, but involved changing time zones.
When the Canucks did come east, they'd look to knock out a lot of games and tend to have longer trips. This season the Canucks had three five-game road trips out to the Eastern Conference.
"It's obviously grueling," Horvat said. "You're on these long, 14-day, 15-day road trip sometimes. There's not a kind of away-and-back, away-and-back, it's mostly once you're gone, you're gone for at least a week. So being here it's been a lot different, it's been kind of been Home and Away and back the next day, so it's been kind of nice."

The 56-game season in 2021 was an outlier, but exasperated the differences in the Canucks travel vs the Islanders. The Islanders longest flights that season were to Buffalo and Pittsburgh, about an hour away. They could bus to the Rangers and Devils. The Canucks, playing in an all-Canadian division, were routinely making cross-country flights to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
"It was grueling. It was a lot of travel, a lot on the body," Horvat said.
Zach Parise can attest to the tough travel in the Western Conference after spending nine seasons with the Minnesota Wild.
Minnesota may be centrally located, but like any Western Conference team, teams are spaced out. The veteran winger said it's "night and day" compared to the Islanders travel schedule.
"It's no comparison it's night and day," Parise said. "Just not changing time zones all the time, you know? Not having long flights. It's just easier on your body. You play road games in your division and you're at house around midnight. It's great, you can get home almost the same time you do as a home game. It goes a long way just trying to catch up and stay rested."
Parise noted the constant time zone changes as the biggest challenge of travel in Minnesota. While the longest flight from Minnesota is about four hours - compared to about six or six-and-a-half for the Islanders to fly to the west coast - Parise said he'd take the odd longer flight, but fewer time zone changes. All of the Islanders Eastern Conference opponents play on the same time zone.
"I'll take that trade off," Parise said. "It's just the time zone thing like I said, but it's just not as many hours on the plane. It's just way better".
Parise's first year in Minnesota (2012-13) was the last year of the NHL's previous division alignment, putting the Wild in the same division as Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Colorado - all teams in different time zones from Minnesota.
It should be noted that all teams travel comfortably on charters, but the Islanders easier travel can benefit the team as the season wears on, especially during the late stages of a playoff push.
"I didn't recognize it until I got here," Head Coach Lane Lambert said of going from Nashville to Washington. "And then you really do notice it."